HSK level checker
Paste a Chinese text, an article, a dialogue or a page from a textbook, and see which HSK level it reads at and which words a learner at that level will not know yet.
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How the level is worked out
The text is cut into words and each word is looked up in the new HSK word lists (HSK 3.0, levels 1 to 6 and the combined 7–9). A word that is not on the lists but is made only of listed words, like 喝茶, counts at the level of its hardest part. Names are left out.
Research on reading in a foreign language puts comfortable reading at about 98% of the words known, and reading with effort at around 90%. So the checker gives two levels: where a text is readable with a few words looked up (90% known) and where it is comfortable (95%). It lists every word above the first: those are the words to teach or gloss before the text is read. Very short texts move a lot with a single word, so paste a paragraph or more.
For teachers
Use it to check a text before you give it to a class, or to find the words worth pre-teaching. Each word links to its own page with pinyin, meaning and its sound.
Looking for texts that are already at the right level? Inkpaper’s graded stories are written for each HSK level, with every word explained.